Backseat Freestyle | MLK Jr. Day | Jets Mock Draft | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
Last year Kendrick Lamar’s Backseat Freestyle was on in the background for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so we’ll run it back again…
Rather than go through this song line through the line, I’ll admit that I picked it strictly because I remembered the opening Intro being “Martin had a dream.” As a white kid from the suburbs, I can’t relate to the African-American experience. I was never in their shoes, but growing up I listened to hip-hop/rap and my favorite athletes on my favorite teams were non-white. Even though I’m paler than the white background you’re reading these words on, I never really thought much about race. I thought the words they wrote down and then spit out in a booth were cool (well, in Shawn Carter’s case he doesn’t even write them down he just flows). I respected the way my favorite players played their games. Here is a piece on 6 African Americans living their own American Dream that I’m sure MLK Jr would be proud of…
Kendrick Lamar Duckworth
(American rapper and songwriter)
Kenrick Lamar, his stage name, was born on June 17, 1987, in Compton, California, U.S. Much as it is today, Compton back then was one of the most dangerous cities in America. (Source: FBI Most Dangerous Cities in America - 97.9 The Box) His parents ironically tried to escape a high-crime area of Chicago and had family on the West Coast.
Kendrick Lamar witnessed his first murder at age five. "It was outside my apartment unit," Lamar remembers. “A guy was out there serving his narcotics and somebody rolled up with a shotgun and blew his chest out. Admittedly, it did something to me right then and there. It let me know that this is not only something that I’m looking at, but it something that maybe I have to get used to.” Three years later, Kendrick would see his second murder. This time it was at the Tam’s Burgers on Central and East Rosecrans, just six blocks from where Kendrick grew up.”(Direct Source: The Dowsers)
He began writing down rhymes when he was a teenager. His former English teacher said that when Kendrick Lamar was in the 7th grade he was quiet. A “solid” student who did his work, but in comparison to his classmates was one of the silent ones. (Source: Complex) If you’re already a fan of Kendrick, it sort of makes sense based on his style, but if you’re new to Kendrick he raps with unabashed confidence and is one of the greatest to ever do it. His album good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012) was in my opinion his launching pad from where he went from rapping on CD mixtapes in Compton to speaking to a whole generation of people globally. Backseat Freestyle is the 3rd track of that album.
Today, Kendrick Lamar has a key to the city of Compton and has donated thousands of dollars to the programs for the Compton Unified School District, the very place he grew up. (Source: Borgen Project) According to a Compton politician, “If you visit Compton ... Mr. Lamar is a familiar face in the neighborhood. (In effort) to help keep Compton students off the streets and in the classroom.” (Source: Global Citizen)
I’m sure that MLK Jr. would be very proud of the work of the quiet kid from Compton, both on and off the stage.
Sauce Gardner
(2-time All-Pro Cornerback for the New York Jets)
Ahmad Gardner, or Sauce Gardner, as he has been nicknamed was born on August 31, 2000, in Detroit, Michigan. Sauce attended Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School in Detroit which is also known for having some rough violent and poverty-stricken areas. The All-Pro Rookie Corner attended the University of Cincinnati where he never allowed a receiving touchdown during his tenure. He was the driving force behind how a football program with very little history of success was ranked #2 in the nation for a whole month in ‘21, the highest Cincinnati has ever been ranked in its football history.
His experience growing up in Detroit didn’t just shape him. It’s part of his identity, on and off the football field. “Where I grew up was like a hard place,” Gardner told NJ Advance Media. “Every time I wake up, I’m just blessed to be where I’m at. But I still carry myself a certain type of way, just based on how I grew up. I would say the majority of it is based on that.” (Source: NJ.com)
The different path he took from his peers was…
I have so much respect for this kid, I don’t even want to call him a kid, he’s a young man in every sense of the word.
**Update**
I’m sure that MLK Jr. would be very proud of the work of the young man who attended MLK Jr. High School in Detroit, both on and off the football field.
Richard Sherman
(Hall of Fame Eligible Cornerback Class of ‘26)
Richard Sherman was born on March 30, 1988, in Compton, California, U.S. Much like Kendrick Lamar, he dealt with adversity growing up and credits his family as well as a neighbor named Jim…
Jim was a retired railroad worker. He lived across the street from the Sherman family at the corner of Clovis and 93rd streets in South Central Los Angeles. The Shermans never knew exactly what they would see outside their home at any hour of the day or night. But Jim, living in his white station wagon packed with his belongings, was a constant for years. "If he saw us doing something bad or out too late, or going to places we shouldn’t be going, he’d come out and say, 'Hey, get your behinds home right now, or I’ll let your parents know,' " Richard Sherman recalled. "We knew that he had just as much authority as our parents, and if we got in trouble with him, we were in trouble with our parents." (Source: NBC Sports)
Sherman attended and graduated from Stanford University. He played WR and CB in college so was considered a bit of a project player heading into the 2011 NFL Draft. Due to this, he wasn’t drafted until the 5th Round with the 154th pick by the Seattle Seahawks. Sherman was an integral part of the Legion of Boom that went on to win won Super Bowl XLVIII and came just an absurd play call away from winning Super Bowl XLIX. After playing for the Seahawks for 7 years, he took his talents closer to home and played for the San Francisco 49ers. During his years with the 49ers, he self-negotiated one of his contracts with the team without an agent. @YouTheReader - he did graduate from Stanford.
In 2013, he and his wife Ashley founded Blanket Coverage, the Richard Sherman Family Foundation, an organization built to support the economic and educational advancement of young people of color. Blanket Coverage provides students in low-income communities with school supplies and clothing to help them achieve their goals. Since its launch, Blanket Coverage has now helped over 70,000 students and raised more than $1.5 million. (Source: 49ers)
For his efforts in giving back to his community, the 49ers chose Richard Sherman to represent them as the team’s Man of the Year nominee in 2019. To follow his current efforts, the Instagram account for the Blanket Coverage Foundation is @blanketcoveragefoundation.
I’m sure that MLK Jr. would be very proud of the work of a future Hall of Famer from Compton, both on and off the football field.
Every year, the NFL has a My Cause, My Cleats initiative where NFL players get to wear their own custom-designed cleats to bring about awareness for things off the field they would like to shine a light on. To add to last year’s 3 profiles, here are 3 other exceptional young Jets who play alongside Sauce Gardner…
Garrett Wilson
(‘22 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year)
Garrett Wilson was born July 22, ‘00 in Columbus, Ohio. The youngest son of a Davidson hoops Hall of Famer, Kenny Wilson, and Candace Wilson. His parents raised him and his siblings in Columbus, until Candace did extensive research and decided it would be best for the family to move to Austin, Texas for Garrett Wilson to live out his NFL dreams. After dominating sports at Lake Travis High School, Garrett would return to Columbus, Ohio, to play for the Buckeyes and dominate the college scene of his hometown.
Wilson’s cause this year was the Newark School of Fashion and Design. High school students at the Newark School of Fashion and Design collaborated with the ‘22 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year for some cool cleats. The Jets and Garrett Wilson have a partnership with Microsoft Surface so the devices were donated to the school to inspire more design. Additional designs for footwear outside of football cleats were sent to Dirty Soles Footwear Group, which is also based out of Newark and their team consists of professionals in the industry offering services in footwear manufacturing, sales, marketing, and business development. (Newark Patch)
I’m sure that MLK Jr. would be very proud of the work of a future All-Pro WR from Columbus, Ohio, both on and off the football field.
Jermaine Johnson
(Most Improved Jets Player)
Jermaine Johnson was born on January 7, 1999, in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. A very talented player in high school, Johnson was deemed ineligible by the NCAA DI Football because of his 1.9 GPA. After high school, he played for Independence Community College in Kansas, which little did he know, would be featured on Season 3 of Last Chance U. Rather than getting caught up in the Netflix series, Johnson was fully focused on school and the football field. He told ESPN, "My goals were very clear to me and I wasn’t really super interested in being an actor or anything like that.” Not that the pass rusher had a bad rookie season by any means, but this past season it was clear as day that JJ put in a ton of work over the offseason and stood out as the team’s most improved from Year 1 to Year 2 in the NFL.
Johnson’s cause this year was Good Sports, the non-profit sports organization that is dedicated to helping drive equitable access to youth sports and physical activity. Good Sports supports children in high-need communities by working with the sporting goods industry to get kids athletic gear, apparel, and footwear. The organization started in ‘03 when in the Boston area, they donated 500 basketballs and they have since donated over $100 million which has made an impact on over 9.5 million kids. (Jets X-Factor)
I’m sure MLK Jr. would be very proud of the hard work of the JUCO to NFL star has put in both on and off the field.
Breece Hall
(Future Top 5 Fantasy Football Pick)
Breece Hall was born on May 31, ‘01, in Omaha, Nebraska. The ‘22 2nd Round RB was a star for the Wichita Northwest High School team before attending Iowa State where he finished with an absurd 56 career TDs in 36 games for the Cyclones. Hall credits his mother, LaRhonda McDaniel, as his number-one fan. During his last home game at Iowa State shared a great moment as his mother put it, “I was overwhelmed. It was a big moment for him and for the team and the fans. When I saw his tears as he was running toward me, I just lost it. He’s so humble, but to see him took my breath away.”
Hall’s cause was Laureus USA - Sport for Good, an organization that has directly invested over $150 million into youth-serving programs around the world. Nelson Mandela inspired the founding of the Laureus Sports for Good Foundation when he declared, “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can weaken hope where there was previously only despair.”
I’m sure that MLK Jr. would be very proud of the work of a Top 5 Fantasy Pick next year from Omaha, both on and off the football field.
It’s already been very easy to root for these guys, very cool to catch a glimpse at the work they do outside of football.
Jets Mock Draft ‘24
This week is just 5 Mock Draft picks from the Jets. Next week I might include the Giants, Pats, Phins, Jaguars, and Chargers.
With the 1st Mock Draft selection for the Jets, I’ll be the responsible adult in the room and take an OT instead of a shiny new weapon stud WR/TE.
Olumuyiwa Fashanu is 6’6”, 308 lbs, and plays Left Tackle for the Nittany Lions. The coaches and AP honored Fashanu with the 2nd team All-Big Ten last year. In ‘22, Fashanu started eight games at left tackle and allowed zero sacks in 281 pass-blocking snaps. He only played 85 snaps before his breakout redshirt sophomore season, so you can expect this upcoming season to have more developmental growth. Despite the lack of career snaps, NFL scouts and agents were all over Oul Fashanu last fall as he was projected to be a first-round talent. Fashanu decided to go back to Penn State for one more year so that he could graduate this summer and start his master’s this past fall. (Source: Penn State)
JJ McCarthy on Sunday announced he would enter the NFL Draft. If he falls to the 3rd Round, he’d be an ideal guy to have sit behind Rodgers as an understudy.
Jonathan James McCarthy is from La Grange Park, Illinois, about 25 minutes west of Chicago. As a freshman at Michigan in ‘21, Head Coach Jim Harbaugh did a great job getting McCarthy some reps in games he didn’t start. He appeared in 11 games and in mostly blowout affairs but he picked up some experience. As a sophomore in ‘22, McCarthy won the job of QB1 and got himself 13 starts for the Wolverines. His stats aren’t eye-popping, Michigan has become a run-first under Harbaugh, but JJ threw for 2,719 yards with a 65% completion percentage and 22 TDs to just 5 INTs. McCarthy has some running ability as well, rushing for 306 yards and 5 TDs last season. This earned him a 3rd Team All-Big Ten selection in ‘22. While some will call JJ McCarthy a “game manager”, it appears his head coach thinks he can offer more in the passing game. “I see this offense being a 50-50 run-pass,” said Harbaugh. McCarthy is very accurate, especially on downfield throws which makes his play-action on a run-first team that much more dangerous.
Safety may become an area of need on the Jets’ defense as both Ashtyn Davis and Jordan Whitehead are set to become free agents this offseason. Bringing in Cole Bishop may be a forward-thinking approach.
Cole Bishop was a junior at Utah last season who played in 24 career games and started in 19 of them. In ‘21, Bishop led all true freshmen on his team with 54 tackles, 9 of which were tackles for a loss and 3 of which were sacks. As a sophomore, Bishop led the Utes in tackles with 83 and had the most tackles for loss (6.0) in the Utah secondary. Twice Bishop has been named PAC-12 All-Conference Honorable Mention, that has got to be a bit annoying. His 5.7 tackles per game in his career is 2nd among active PAC-12 secondary players. While Cole may only have 1 INT to his name, he is still an effective defensive back as he has allowed only 6.7 yards per catch in pass coverage - which made him tied for 2 with the fewest yards per catch last season among players in all the Power Five.
The Jets need another explosive playmaker alongside Garrett Wilson. Corley is almost like a RB once you get him the ball in space.
Malachi Corley is originally from Orange City, Florida. Due to COVID, he retained his freshman eligibility in ‘20 while essentially redshirting. In ‘21, Corley took a step forward collecting 73 catches for 691 yards and 7 TDs. He then came back in ‘22 to have the best receiving season in Western Kentucky history with 101 catches for 1,295 yards and 11 TDs. This earned him All-Conference USA First Team. Corley is a 5’11 shifty and speedy WR with the potential to be a NFL weapon out of the slot. Unfortunately, his ‘23 season started with a painful rib injury but expect him back on the field soon.
Another responsible adult selection. The Jets need big bodies with versatility up front. Amegadjie has experience at tackle and guard.
Kiran Amegadjie is from Hinsdale, Illinois, which is about a half-hour drive west of Chicago. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Economics while mauling guys on the gridiron. The 6’5” & 326 lbs. lineman first got his opportunity to play for Yale in ‘21 when he started every game at RG. He was named an All-Ivy Honorable Mention and earned the Charles Loftus Award which goes to the most valuable freshman on the Yale team. Last year in ‘22, Amegadjie was named 1st Team All-Ivy and made 10 starts at LT. As the blindside of Yale, he played a major role in the Bulldogs leading the Ivy League in rushing and total offense. Scouts are a huge fan of his wingspan as well as his athleticism, and strength as a blocker.